Game Review: Stepmania (PC / Xbox / PSP)

We've all heard of the Konami Arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, and it’s numerous sequels and ports.
A lot of us have it on our home consoles, breaking it out during parties or even using it for exercising. I’m here to review a homebrew PC clone of DDR. This clone is called Stepmania.

The Default Stepmania Menu

Now some of you have probably heard of Stepmania. It isn’t at all new, in fact it was first released in November of 2005!
But it’s free and open-source, with I-Pod, PSP, and Xbox ports, and is guaranteed to entertain.
Now my Stepmania experience is on the Xbox, with StepmaniaX. It was relatively easy to set up too. The downside that I can think of is that you have to go and find songs, announcers, background animations, etc, to get it working properly.

It immediately worked with the DDR PS2-GC-Xbox Dance Pad and plays/feels exactly like the real thing, with the only problem being that if you are using the Dance Pad, it can be a tad bit annoying setting up the controls at first. However, once you’re finished setting the controls up, it works great!

Doesn’t it look exactly like DDR?

Stepmania is also very customizable. From background animations to arrows to songs, you can make it what you feel is best, and if you don’t like what’s available on the internet, you can learn how to make your own content and custom songs!

Overall, Stepmania is free, (unless you want the optional but recommended dance pad, which is only $20) and will keep you entertained with the thousands of songs you can add to it, I recommend you check it out. With that said, I definitely recommend the PC and Xbox versions, with the only cons being the way you have to setup the game itself and the controls, making it a lot more difficult to work with at first compared to DDR. The PSP and iPod versions however, I really dont care for myself. Even though these ports are very similar to the original PC version, you must keep in mind that it IS a dancing game, that you should be using a dance pad for. Honestly, what’s the point of playing a dancing game if you’re going using a d-pad or a click wheel?